I am giving this particular episode of I SPY a "7" but it is for two reasons which may seem a trifle frivolous, but which I feel rather serious enough about to mention.
Jim Backus and Gene Hackman both had roles in this particular episode. It was not a comic episode either. Hackman played the villain, a man with a grudge against Bill Cosby and Robert Culp and another, and he was killed off in the course of the episode (but I recall it was not quite at the end). I believe (someone may correct me on this) he has left a bomb which may still kill several people after his death. But in his case, it was one of his last television acting performances in a supporting part. He made BONNIE AND CLYDE that year, and withing ten years would have won the Oscar for his performance in THE FRENCH CONNECTION as "Popeye" Doyle.
As for Backus, he was the agent that Hackman's fury was really directed at. The bomb danger was directed toward Backus' family in the episode. It was not the type of role we tend to identify with him (especially as he had just finished his period playing Mr. McGoo and Thurston Howard III on GILLIGAN'S ISLAND) but more in line with his serious work as a dramatic actor in films like REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE and THE MAN WITH A THOUSAND FACES. As such he handled the role well. It sometimes makes me pause about performers like Backus, who really were capable of more than what they are recalled for. It makes me treasure the moments when they did get a chance to show their other abilities. This was one of them.
Jim Backus and Gene Hackman both had roles in this particular episode. It was not a comic episode either. Hackman played the villain, a man with a grudge against Bill Cosby and Robert Culp and another, and he was killed off in the course of the episode (but I recall it was not quite at the end). I believe (someone may correct me on this) he has left a bomb which may still kill several people after his death. But in his case, it was one of his last television acting performances in a supporting part. He made BONNIE AND CLYDE that year, and withing ten years would have won the Oscar for his performance in THE FRENCH CONNECTION as "Popeye" Doyle.
As for Backus, he was the agent that Hackman's fury was really directed at. The bomb danger was directed toward Backus' family in the episode. It was not the type of role we tend to identify with him (especially as he had just finished his period playing Mr. McGoo and Thurston Howard III on GILLIGAN'S ISLAND) but more in line with his serious work as a dramatic actor in films like REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE and THE MAN WITH A THOUSAND FACES. As such he handled the role well. It sometimes makes me pause about performers like Backus, who really were capable of more than what they are recalled for. It makes me treasure the moments when they did get a chance to show their other abilities. This was one of them.
